Food Revival - Food Waste

The world has a problem with waste, and under this includes food waste. In the UK in 2015 alone, £15 billion of edible food was thrown away from our homes. As well as this food going to waste, the impact on the environment is significant, with the food packaging being discarded. This process also contributes to deforestation. It is not only the planet that suffers when food is thrown away, but consumers pockets are also suffering too - by throwing away edible food they are losing money.

How changes are being made
Buying more consciously - planning meals/portions for families
Eating by the Use By date 
Adjusting fridge temperatures to keep food from spoiling / Freezing excess food
Using leftover food in new ways - new recipes etc.

Of the food thrown away, 4.4m tonnes was deemed to be “avoidable” waste that was edible at some point before it was put in the bin or food waste caddy – such as bread that goes mouldy – compared with 4.2m tonnes in 2012. The rest were scraps that could not be eaten such as meat bones, eggshells, tea bags, coffee grounds, apple cores and fruit and vegetable peelings.That meant the average UK household wasted £470 worth of food, which went in the bin when it could have been eaten. The avoidable food waste generated 19m tonnes of greenhouse gases over its lifetime – and preventing that pollution would be equivalent to taking one in four cars off UK roads, Wrap said. - source

However, it is not just households that are responsible for food waste.

Supermarkets are notoriously bad for discarding unwanted food, if the food does not get bought before the display date then it will be thrown away. Some supermarkets have a reduced section which contains food that has been slightly damaged or is near its end date which can encourage people to buy these to reduce waste. However, supermarkets are very picky about which products they can sell. A good example of this is fruit and vegetables, which have to meet certain criteria in their looks in order to be sold. 
One way of combatting this is by selling these products for a discounted price, for example, Morrisons now sells fruit and veg that do not meet the criteria under the range "wonky veg" (see fig 1 and 2) to help reduce waste and people to save money. Morrisons have a section on their website explaining the venture, according to them, around 30 per cent of the carrots they buy don’t make it into Class 1 bags. (Class 1 being fruit sold normally, Class 2 being wonky veg). This is obviously a massive percentage of the food they are selling. As well as wonky veg, Morrisons also launched a £1 Too Good to Waste box, containing 1kg of assorted seasonal fruit and vegetables at the end of their shelf life but still good to eat. (see fig 3)

fig 1

fig 2

fig 3

Initiatives like the Real Junk Food Project are helping to reduce waste from supermarkets by sourcing the discarded food and transforming into perfectly edible food. Other ventures such as Love Food Hate Waste (see fig 4 and 5) are helping people to reduce their waste and save money by providing recipes for leftover food and support on the subject.

fig 4

fig 5